18 May 2015

More than a few words to forget about

My favorite part about finishing a beverage is preparing its bottle for recycling by rinsing it with water. You pour a little water in, and replace the container’s cap; then you shake it around, to clear away any residue. The feel of this shaking motion pleases me – I always improvise a song in my mind, to compliment the rhythm of my shaking: I imagine myself as a professional maraca player in a bright white suit. On average, my bottle-rinsing music sessions continue for about twenty to thirty-five minutes. That’s why I’m late for work.

Obligatory image

One of my students built a machine that is able to draw lines on paper. As a gift, I was given the very first design that her machine produced. To increase its value in the art world, I positioned a newspaper clipping near the center of the design. The piece then sold for 7,000 euros.

When Goethe says “the plant is always only leaf,” I think that this same continuity exists between every style of being; which is why I find it hard to kill a fly.

It was a swindle even when it cost $380.75 to post something on the social network; so, when this price hike to $429.50 went into effect, I seriously planned on never posting again. But then I couldn’t resist sharing this picture of me and my girlfriends drinking lite beer.

I find it hard to believe that the word “cute” combines with the word “pinnacle” to form the word “cuticle.”

I changed my identity to avoid a library fine.

An oracle from my domestic partner: I’m the monkiest friendly girl around, and I’m just glad that I get to be in on the fun of you.

This evening I severed a VGA cable with a hedge trimmer.

If businesses stop issuing paychecks, their employees will simply continue to work for free, and this will help improve the world economy.

It’s a rule of physics: The smoke always plumes toward the nonsmoker.

My daily walks are timed so erratically that you can set your clock by them and be either late or early for every event.

God assured me that no movies were harmed in the creation of this animal.

Special interests

The remainder of this diary entry is only for those who share my obsession with (1) this topic, (2) that topic, and (3) the other topic. Standard-issue, regular people will not understand a single phrase that I write here.

Actually, for the following, I just pasted comments that I originally wrote on other networks, so that my words will not get lost when those networks die. (The prophecy says that all networks will soon die when their news feeds catch on fire from moving too fast—& the only thing that will survive is MY OWN BLOG: because no one, not even its worst enemies, can find it.) Thanks for snoring so politely.

On Officer Duke

Some people think that he’s just a one-dimensional brute; but when one looks closer at the performance, one notices that Officer Duke possesses an entire gamut of emotions: yet he’s like an adolescent devoid of a superego. I love that scene with the movie director Bob, not just because it’s hilarious but because it shows Duke acting like a vulnerable child. When Bob answers Duke’s questions with simple negatives, Duke is genuinely forlorn; and then he tries to make the excuse about “numeric movies” versus “regular cinema,” to assuage his discouragement. There’s something super-comic about showing this coarse, cold authority figure in such a tender state, for such ridiculous reasons. The psychological incongruity that pervades every scene is what I love the most about that movie.

R-r-r-r-rap

I grew up on sparse, lyric-centered, heavily percussive hip hop. I love a lot of the lesser-known performers from around the 1980s. (I don’t like most of the new stuff that people label rap or hip hop.) To give you an idea of my taste, I’ll list my five-way ties for favorite vocalists and producers, in no particular order:

Here is a debate about the effect of smart technology on human cognition. I only planned to tune in for a minute and then drop out, but I ended up watching the whole video because this stuff is like catnip to me. Sometimes I shouted urgently at the screen, but, since the people on the screen did not react, I assume that they couldn’t hear my arguments; which is a shame, because the things that I said were brilliant.

[A clergyman heaped praises upon his smart device for helping him to transcend his natural weaknesses. The following paragraphs are my replies to him:]

One of the many things I found interesting about the debate is that both sides readily acknowledged what you’re saying – that smart tech is helpful & good, in a certain respect; and none of us would want to abolish it – HOWEVER, the problem may be that its gift of ease lures us to be even more lazy and mentally complacent than we were to begin with; so it might possibly be a healthy habit to use this particular technology only sparingly.

It’s sort of like how the invention of written language, which is undoubtedly an excellent thing, freed the human mind from having to memorize all the stuff that it deemed important – but the consequence of this freedom was that, since memorization was no longer necessary, everyone’s thinking became a little less disciplined (again, just in a certain respect) – as they say: “use it or lose it.”

It’s unfortunate that even serious debates like this one feel the need to come up with catchy titles like “Smart Tech is Making Us Dumb” just to get our attention – I think it would have been better if they had chosen to use less sensational wording for the motion. I gather that the real focus of the debate is whether or not smart devices are luring people away from deeper thinking:

People are likely settling for being good at finding quick facts rather than excelling at comprehending both the subtleties of thought AS WELL AS its overarching ideas. (These are just instances among many possible mental abilities that one might stand to lose, if the debate’s proposal is correct).

Plus there’s the question of whether or not the convenience and immediacy of online networking is resulting in compulsive mental patterns while enticing its users to deprive themselves of the silence (downtime / mental rest) which is integral to deeper contemplation.

P.S.

Sorry about all the lies . . . I just love lying & cannot stop.

Now I’m off to the park to read aloud from my favorite poet. This, for me and my homegirl, is a church substitute.